Obakeng grew up in rural North West near the small town of Zeerust. Growing up, he was surrounded by beautiful, peaceful natural landscapes. The village he grew up in was next to a river and was completely surrounded by mountains with clear night skies exposing the brilliant and spectacular constellations. He believes that growing up there gave him his deeply embedded love for nature and all things conservation.

Obakeng holds a BSc in Biology and Geography and a BSc Honours in Biology with Botany from North West University. During his studies, his love and passion for nature was reignited, and he knew what he wanted to do with his life. His honours mini-dissertation was about mapping the distribution of an alien invasive plant in an ecosystem and looking at how succession had operated in that ecosystem over a number of decades.

Obakeng’s work experience includes working with the Kalahari Research Centre, home of the Kalahari Meerkat Project, where he worked as a volunteer field assistant collecting behavioural, social, morphological, DNA and ecological data on Cape Ground Squirrels. His time there exposed him to a lot of like-minded people from different backgrounds around the world. He then worked as a research assistant at a primate project – The Swebeswebe Primate Project in the Waterberg Biosphere Reserve in Limpopo – where he collected behavioural, social and ecological data on wild Chacma Baboons. All the fieldwork he has done has made him realize that he is made for the bush and the bush is made for him. He loves being outdoors in nature.

In his spare time, Obakeng enjoys playing sports – mostly tennis and soccer – as well as playing music on his keyboard.

Obakeng is very excited to do the MSc in Conservation Biology as he thinks it will equip him with the skills and experience to be a well-rounded ecologist and conservationist.

Thesis: Handling the heat: managing microclimates for nesting desert hornbills. (Supervisors: Susie Cunningham, Celiwe Ngcamphala).